Thirty-Fourth Report - Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 639 29 May 2024

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 32 items (4 recs)

Source View on Parliament website

Government Response (AI assessment · 32 of 32 classified)

Accepted 16

Acknowledged 7

Deferred 2

Not Addressed 4

Rejected 3

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-fourth report from Session 2023-24 · published 11 Jul 2025

Read the government response ↗ Response on the tracker

Recommendations & Conclusions

7 results

6 Recommendation Acknowledged

Urgently publish outstanding Accounting Officer Assessments and explain third country processing negotiations.

Recommendation

We are disappointed that, despite the Committee previously raising concerns, the Permanent Secretary is still not providing the necessary transparency to enable Parliament to hold the Home Office to account on its asylum and immigration plans. We have previously raised … Read more

Government Response Summary

The Home Office commits to producing and publishing outstanding Accounting Officer Assessments as quickly as possible, pending ministerial views, but indicates some will not be published yet due to ongoing discussions. On negotiations, it will write to the Committee in due course but maintains the sensitive nature requires privacy.

HM Treasury

View Details

7 Conclusion Acknowledged

Home Office lacks precise figures for Illegal Migration Act removals and Rwanda relocations.

Conclusion

We asked the Home Office how many people it planned to remove under the Illegal Migration Act. At our evidence session, the Home Office told us that it estimated at 28 December 2023 there were 33,000 people that the Home … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government notes the committee's observations but states they are no longer relevant as the Migration Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda is ending, meaning no removals will take place under this scheme.

HM Treasury

View Details

10 Conclusion Acknowledged

Home Office unable to explain significant additional escort training costs for Rwanda scheme.

Conclusion

The Home Office has estimated that it would cost £11,000 to fly each relocated individual to Rwanda. Witnesses told us that this was an internal estimate and actual costs would depend on a number of variables. The Home Office will … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government stated it has already provided details on overall Rwanda partnership funding and confirmed the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will be ending, meaning no removals to Rwanda.

HM Treasury

View Details

25 Conclusion Acknowledged

Accounting Officer could not confirm Rwanda policy offers value for money without deterrence evidence.

Conclusion

Accounting Officers are responsible for approving, in advance, all significant initiatives, policies, programmes and projects, and should provide assurance to Parliament that those activities are meeting the accounting officer standards set out in Managing Public Money – regularity, propriety, value … Read more

Government Response Summary

HM Treasury

View Details

28 Conclusion Acknowledged

Home Office delayed publishing Rwanda programme costs assessment, hindering timely Parliamentary scrutiny.

Conclusion

The Chairs of the Public Accounts and Home Affairs Committees have repeatedly questioned the Home Office about the lack of information available to Parliament on costs the Rwanda partnership.48 Despite raising these concerns over the Accounting Officer’s willingness to share … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the importance of producing Accounting Officer Assessments (AOAs) and commits to producing new ones promptly, but states implementation dates are to be advised and ministerial views remain part of the process, which the committee identified as a cause for delay.

HM Treasury

View Details

29 Conclusion Acknowledged

We therefore asked the Accounting Officer (AO) why there had been such a delay in...

Conclusion

We therefore asked the Accounting Officer (AO) why there had been such a delay in sharing the assessment with Parliament. The Accounting Officer told us that they kept their assessments under constant review, but that the publication of AO assessment … Read more We therefore asked the Accounting Officer (AO) why there had been such a delay in sharing the assessment with Parliament. The Accounting Officer told us that they kept their assessments under constant review, but that the publication of AO assessment summaries has to be agreed by relevant Ministers. They explained that, on the Sovereign Borders Programme, the Home Secretary had decided to make it public in March 2024. We reminded the Accounting Officer that he is accountable to the Public Accounts Committee and Parliament, noting that other departments have shared assessments in a much more timely manner, without Ministerial approval being a barrier.50 HM Treasury guidance states that departments need to publish summary assessments promptly when a project is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio. In some cases, the timing might depend on other sensitivities, such as commercial confidentiality, and the accounting officer may decide public interest is best served by delaying publication. In such circumstances, the Accounting Officer should nonetheless still share a copy of the summary assessment on a confidential basis with the chairs of the Public Accounts Committee and relevant departmental committees, along with an explanation of the need 47 Qq 123, 129–130, 132; C&AG’s Report, UK-Rwanda partnership, para 10 48 Public Accounts Committee, Oral Evidence; Reducing the harm from illegal drugs, 4 December 2023, Qq 1–50 49 Qq 1, 7, 14, 22, 27; Letter from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, to Dame Meg Hillier DBE MP, Chair, Public Accounts Committee, Home Office Sovereign Borders Programme: Summary Accounting Officer Assessment, dated 27 March 2024 50 Qq 1–4, 10–13 18 Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership for confidentiality. In written evidence provided after the evidence session, HM Treasury noted that there may be circumstances where the accounting officer determines they are unable to share information with the Committee as they Show less

Government Response Summary

HM Treasury

View Details

32 Conclusion Acknowledged

When asked for an update, the Home Office said that it was important that the...

Conclusion

When asked for an update, the Home Office said that it was important that the substance of any negotiations with any other countries was kept private, and that it would not share the information in public. We noted that it … Read more When asked for an update, the Home Office said that it was important that the substance of any negotiations with any other countries was kept private, and that it would not share the information in public. We noted that it was important that the Committee, and the Home Affairs Committee, were as updated as possible on these matters. The Accounting Officer offered to “pursue the possibility of briefing a number of you behind 51 HM Treasury, Accounting Officer Assessments – Guidance,_May_2023, part 4; Letter from David Fairbrother, Treasury Officer of Accounts, HM Treasury, to Dame Meg Hillier DBE MP, Follow up to 15 April – Asylum Accommodation and UK Rwanda partnership, dated 8 May 2024, paras 12–17 52 Qq 11–12, 16; Letter from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, to Dame Meg Hillier DBE MP and Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE MP, Chairs, Public Accounts Committee and Home Affairs Committee - Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership, dated 25 April 2024 53 Letter from David Fairbrother, Treasury Officer of Accounts, HM Treasury, to Dame Meg Hillier DBE MP, Follow up to 15 April – Asylum Accommodation and UK Rwanda partnership, dated 8 May 2024, paras 2 - 6 54 Qq 16, 18–19 55 Letter from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, to Dame Meg Hillier DBE MP and Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE MP, Chairs, Public Accounts Committee and Home Affairs Committee – Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership, dated 25 April 2024 56 Qq 30–32, 39–40, 64–66, 77, 82, 106 Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership 19 the scenes”. They acknowledged that there would be a significant lead time, similar to that of the Rwanda partnership, to agree to and implement any further partnerships.57 The Home Office provided written evidence after the session and confirmed that, working with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, it had approached other countries to assess their level of interest in working with the UK as third country asylum partners. Show less

Government Response Summary

The government maintains that details of negotiations with other countries for third-country processing must remain private due to sensitivity, but states it will write to the new Committee in due course to provide updates as necessary.

HM Treasury

View Details